


Countdown

by theladysherlock



Category: Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld
Genre: F/M, Gen, Short, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:54:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23152051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theladysherlock/pseuds/theladysherlock
Summary: Soulmate AU where everyone is born with a number on their wrist that counts down until the moment they make eye contact with their soulmate.
Relationships: Aleksander of Hohenberg/Deryn Sharp
Comments: 8
Kudos: 74





	Countdown

_**[10:43:06:20:52]** _

She likes watching the numbers tick down on her wrist. Ma says staring won't make the day come any faster, but she isn't worried about that. She likes to think that someone out there is watching their own wrist at the exact same time.

Deryn's number is on the higher end of some of the other kids in town. Some of them are already at zero, because they've been playing house with their soulmate since they were in diapers. Her da says her number's so high because she's bound for adventure. She's going to fly around the world and meet all sorts of people. Her soulmate won't be here in town, but somewhere new and exciting.

Not that town isn't exciting. There are trees to climb and gardens to explore and Da's hot air balloon to fly in. But she stares down at the numbers on her wrist and thinks that she's going to see everything. 

_**[07:232:16:44:15]** _

His mother's number is zero. So is his father's. It has always been zero, as far as Alek remembers. Father explained that this means they're soulmates, that providence brought the two of them together. He didn’t need to explain that he loves her. The way they look at each other is evidence enough of that. 

The ladies in the court look down at Alek and make snide comments when they think he can't hear. The only reason his parents' marriage was even allowed, they say, was because they were soulmates. 

"A crude and common practice," one woman says, whose own wrist is covered by a richly embroidered piece of cloth, as is the style.

They act as though his mother isn’t even there. Her presence in the court is allowed, but not acknowledged. And Alek might as well be the bastard son who’s hidden away out of shame, for how they treat him. He’s not allowed to speak, not allowed to go wherever he wants, and he’s not allowed to stand up for himself when his family members insult him to his face. All because his mother isn’t fully Royal, but a soulmate. 

Soulmates are for commoners, Alek realizes. It might have been fine for his parents, but if he's going to inherit anything, as Father says he will one day, he needs to be careful. He can't afford to have a soulmate.

He ties a strip of cloth over the countdown on his wrist.

_**[01:196:12:20:43]** _

Deryn sees the flaming balloon every time she closes her eyes. She hears the crack of the ropes, smells fire and kerosene and burnt flesh. She's plagued by visions and she can't even light a candle properly anymore.

Her ma tries to help, but it doesn't work. The opposite of flying and adventuring, apparently, is tea parties and embroidery and dresses and dancing. Deryn hates every second of it. She was supposed to fly around the world, not stay stuck on the ground in her neighborhood. And now her soulmate gets to have all the fun adventures while she’s stuck here. They weren’t supposed to come to her. And if she meets them in town, she’ll never get the chance to leave. 

As the aunties chatter about nothing important, Deryn stares down at the numbers on her wrist. A plan starts to formulate in her head. It's completely mad, and dangerous, not to mention illegal, but it catches in her brain. 

_I'm coming_ , she thinks.

_**[00:24:02:19:01]** _

Keeping watch is unbearably lonely. 

It's not that Alek is alone, of course. His men all sleep around him, snoring louder than any engine. But he is the only one conscious, and he has no one to talk to about the fears that have a vise-like grip on his mind and his heart. 

Not that he thinks he would be able to tell them, in any case. Being hunted has them all afraid of the same thing. None of the other men have voiced their concerns. For Alek to say anything now would be pointing out the obvious.

But still. He is so afraid of death. 

He nervously twists the ends of the fabric covering his left wrist. Alek has not really looked at the numbers in years. Even with his claim to the throne rejected, he can't afford a soulmate. His status is so precarious as-is. 

But he can't imagine Providence would play such a cruel joke as giving him a number past his death. 

Slowly, with shaking hands, he unties the cloth around his wrist. In the darkness, he can just make out the time.

24 days. 2 hours. 17 minutes. 32 seconds. 

Alek doesn't know whether to be relieved or to cry. He is guaranteed twenty-four days. He is _only_ guaranteed twenty-four days. 

He settles for tying the fabric back over his wrist. 

_**[00:00:03:12:46]** _

The lady boffin says they're headed to the Ottoman Empire, but it will be a few days before they reach it. 

Deryn looks down at her number, which she has paid extra close attention to while in disguise. She can’t afford for her soulmate to blow her secret. And it would be particularly awkward if it happened to be one of the crew. But she’s met all the men by now, and they’re not going to land for a few days. So that means something must be happening soon. Do they have a stowaway? Will the ship make an emergency landing to rescue someone? Or is her number all screwy and she doesn’t actually have a soulmate? It does make a certain amount of sense, she supposes. She’s in love with the air. Maybe her soulmate is the way flying feels when she’s in a specific part of the _Leviathan_. 

That doesn’t sound so bad. 

Deryn’s still thinking about the wind in her hair when the klaxon rings out, calling her to battle stations. Her heart races. This can’t possibly end well, not with her number so close to zero. 

_**[00:00:00:02:34]** _

Alek doesn’t know what he expects to do when he gets to the wretched airbeast. The smart thing to do would be to stay hidden in the castle, as Volger said, and to let the Darwinists solve their own problem. But Alek felt an insistent tug on his heart, like he had to go help them, even if they were the enemy. 

Well, were they, actually? Alek had been running from Germans and other Clankers for so long. _The enemy of my enemy is my friend_ , he supposes. It’s justification enough for him to risk hiking a few miles in the cold in the middle of the night.

Alek shuffles over on his snowshoes. The air gets considerably warmer as he approaches, which, he realizes, is the heat from the monstrous airbeast itself. His stomach churns. He should just go. He shouldn’t even be here, not this close to something so horrible.

There’s the slumped body of a man on this side of the ship. Alek frowns. Is he hurt? Is he dead? It’s impossible to say. But no one seems to have noticed that he’s here, and if he needs medical attention….

Alek steels his resolve and pushes forward. He crouches in front of the boy, whose blonde hair is caked with blood. He checks the boy’s neck for a pulse. It’s steady but slow. Alek fishes around in his medical kit for the smelling salts and wafts them gently under his nose. 

The boy’s blue eyes flutter open.


End file.
